December 16, 2008

‘Fashionably Late:’ The Last of our Grant Recipients

The last of our seven grant recipients checks in with info. He poked a little fun at himself in his e-mail to me, calling himself “fashionably late.” He makes up for it with a truly impressive bio and proposal. Take it away….

“Rye” writes: – “I’m currently working in Europe, a.k.a. the EU, as a independent researcher, freelance copy editor, proofreader and English instructor. My research interests are the (para)political economy of U.S. foreign interventions, globalization, poverty, health, social justice, the environment and privatization. I consider myself a minor league news and information activist and/or junkie.

“Owing to the enormous amount of misinformation, bias (on all sides), distortion and misunderstanding about Venezuela, a nation that has arguably led the way (clumsily or not) in sinking the Monroe Doctrine and re-igniting an alternative to North American dictated development, I would like to work on a timeline investigating recent U.S foreign policy and events in Venezuela – featuring coup attempts, covert subversion and destabilization efforts aimed at undermining and ultimately changing the government of Venezuela. We’ll look briefly at the democratic rise of Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution; the US-backed attempted coup of 2002; anti-government student movements; U.S. backing of opposition leaders, media and parties; paramilitary infiltration from Colombia; events surrounding the last (failed) referendum; and U.S. attempts to discredit the Chavez government via allegations of Narco and FARC ties, and especially via the Colombian special
forces operation on FARC in Ecuador with its seized “magic laptops”. Colombia, drugs, and paramilitary formations will necessarily feature in events.

“I’d also be interesting in contributing to/cooperating on timelines on the current economic crisis, focusing a bit more on the re-structuring of the global political-economic order, placing it within the context of deregulatory policies and collusive private-government entities & events favorable to global corporate, market & financial consolidation and privatization. The main issues involved? Revolving doors between the private sector and the state; the capture of state and public offices by private capital; the privatization of public companies and markets and the creeping consolidation of economic power into fewer and fewer behemoths; and the restructuring of the global financial architecture to better serve privatization and consolidation. All this naturally ties into the present credit crisis and bailout. Ralph Brauer’s “The Strange Death of Liberal America”, is an excellent starting point, going back through the history of the
Glass-Steagall Act which was repealed by the Clinton Administration and Congress.

“I would also be happy to contribute to any timeline(s) dealing with the Balkans; Kosovo in particular. I’m very familiar with the region, and have been following the development of its U.S.-protected dysfunctional, criminal deep state. I think it can be demonstrated that the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the U.S./NATO war on Serbia for Kosovo was a test run for Afghanistan, with many parallels and an almost seamless continuation – with variations – of policy, actors and goals.

“And then there’s Afghanistan and Pakistan: General post-911 US involvement. I have been struck by western efforts to (over) arm and train, inevitably, ALL sides of the conflict in this region, including the Taliban. Inevitably, I think this ties into the deeper political economics of the drug trade, the GWOT, and re-ordering Eurasia. The place is up-armed and ready to blow, host to perhaps the heaviest concentration of extremist operatives in the world. A solid (pre)historical record on this is essential, especially since it looks like it is all systems go for World War 4 in that region.

“I am happy to be here and looking forward to getting down to work (alas, in January 2009).”